


From Enemies to Friends

by Dracula_In_Purple



Series: My Splatoon Story [2]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Splatubers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2020-05-07 18:00:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19214632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracula_In_Purple/pseuds/Dracula_In_Purple
Summary: Both of them have nothing in common. She terrorise opponents and teammates alike; he cover turfs and run away from opponents at first sight. She thought it's going to be the solution; he thought it's life or death situation. What makes them become the legendary duo in Turf War History?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note : All of this is ENTIRELY NON-CANON. I’m still working on my writing skills. Thank You and Enjoy, hopefully.

“Wow, this is Inkopolis Plaza? It’s so much more cooler than you let on, Nick!” a blue inkling boy, wearing the classic Starting Gears, exclaimed as he looked around the place he’s going to grow up independently. The buzzing crowd, the fresh air, the outstanding Booyah Base and the sleepy cat just outside from the Deca Tower, he love it.

A man, wearing a red yukata with a unique symbol on the back and a matching bucket hat, chuckled as he put downs the last luggage into the pile onto the cart. “I can’t said the same thing though, Erek. After all, I still have that traumatic memory at here. Barely surviving before I met Mistress.” He arranged the luggage to make sure it won’t fall. “Talking about Mistress, she is sure spoil you to the core, kiddo! Making sure you did your best with these sick gears!”

Erek looked at the mountain-like luggage before sighing, “Geez, Grandmama shouldn’t pack this much! What am I suppose to do with all of this, Nick?”

“Well, all of it is to make sure you have a fun time playing.”

“Fun? Do you see this shirt? It’s stacked full with Damage Up!”

“That is the definition of fun for Mistress, kid. Do you want me to take this luggage of food from the pile? You always want to cook for yourself, kiddo.”

“Oh yeah, thanks! Wait… I’m being mean… I really need to apologize to Blan. They put effort to this…”

“Erek, they won’t mind if you take a portion of it for dinner.”

The boy brighten up quickly. Before Nick could push the cart, Erek push him away so he could handle the cart himself. “Sorry, Nick but I want to do this myself. I’m a grown inkling now!”

Nick tear up a bit before drying his eyes on his yukata. He couldn’t believe that the boy that he helped to raise suddenly become independent now. He was so glad to got chosen to help his young master to move out, even though it’s by cheating. “Want me to accompany you? It’s gonna be our last time hanging out with each other, kid.”

“Sure, Nick! Beside, who say I’m going to stay here forever? I would still go back home to visit you guys! After all, we are still family!” Erek exclaimed before pushing the cart. The man almost cried. “ **Thank you for accepting me, young master…** ” he whispered before following behind him.

~~~~~~~~~~

In all of Piranha Pit maps, battles are still going on or in the middle of calculating the results. Out of all of them, one of the map catches the eyes of all the people in the Spectators Only Area. The map are almost covered in purple ink and the Yellow team is still inside their base, refusing to go out with that one Inkling girl, wearing the Starting gear and equipped with Splattershot Jr, waiting outside while playing around with her Splat Bomb. She look bored as she glanced through the Yellow team again and again, waiting for at least one of them to come out from their base.

“What in the Zapfish are we gonna do, Skul?! There are only two of them and four of us! We can’t keep this up! We are the cod damn Team B-Rush! Our reputation…” one of the members, wearing SQUID GIRL Tunic, cried in frustration as he plopped down to the floor. Another member, who seems to be cosplaying as one of the Barbershop Quartet, sighed dramatically as he patted his friend on the head, “I know, Fishy. This is a very unfair battle at first, ironically. To think they balance their ‘two disconnected teammates’ situation out with that Monster Rookie… that Stealth boy got lucky.”

The timer struck down to one minute and ten seconds when the girl’s only teammate finally appears. The Stealth Goggles boy seems to be cocky as he squid-taunt towards the team. He stopped before got glared down by the Monster Rookie, whimpering while apologising to her. “Ugh, I want to splat that guy. Can I splat that guy?” another inkling, wearing Squid Nordic, tried to step out before got hold up by the cosplayer. “GG, wha-”

“Choco, that dangerous woomy is still out there. Three seconds out of the base, KERSPLAT, and you are a goner.” GG interrupted as he re-analyse their situation. As much as he didn’t want to admit, Team B-Rush had no hope in winning unless that girl got splatted miraculously. Each time they leave the Respawn Point separately, they ended up getting splatted out of nowhere. Whenever they leave as a group to split her attention, she somehow managed to splatted them all before they could even inked up to their specials. Try to splat her as a group, managed to dodged each hits before splatting them into an oblivion.

“Guys, stop installing fear yourself! Get your act together! Monster Rookie or what not, she’s still a beginner!” the leader of Team B-Rush, Skul with his untied long tentacles, shouted as he nervously looked at the timer. 50 seconds left and that girl is still not moving an inch since she stand there. Team B-Rush have reputation as a team formed with Splatubers and Splartist, and now he fear that this kind of gameplay would make their fans disappointed or even worse, quitting their fan club. Fishy stopped his gibberish tantrums as he glared at Skul.

“Beginner?! Skul, you know better than this! How could she still a beginner?! She debuted two months ago and almost everyone is terrified of her! Remember last week? That devil squid splatted Crystal fifteen times in one match! Fifteen! Splats! Our combined splats against Crystal can’t even best that rookie’s score! And you said she’s still a beginner? When she splatted our ace multiple times?” Fishy stated angrily as he start to pulled his tentacle. What he said is true. That insquid girl really splatted their ace player so much that Crystal is still locked in her own room, drawing disturbing image that portrayed that Monster Rookie a devil under the sea.

Each of them was starting to getting restless as the girl in front of them starting to resemble the drawings in Crystal’s sketchbook. It’s not helping that the timer struck down to forty seconds and half of the spectators are their fans. The Squid Nordic boy suddenly shouted, “Guys, I think I have a plan to overturn this match!”

“It better is, Choco, it better is.”

~~~~~~~~~~

As they walked on, the workers inside the their shops stopped what they are doing and stared at them in disbelief. Few of the shop owners started to shout orders at their employee. Nick knew this is going to happen if he wears clothes with that specific symbol, but he still wears it in order to make his young master to get more respect. After all, Erek have a… unique play style. Despite the fact that the symbol indeed make some difference, he still worries that Erek is going to make friends that have ill intentions. Though it’s so funny to listen the commotion from the outside.

“Waiting for, what are you? Dirty tables, clean you must!”

“Be more representable, sleepyhead! Your messy behaviour might change the fate of this Zekko shop that its company managed to settle!”

“Replace those outdated magazines into new ones, my little darlings! Must not disappoint those unannounced visitors!”

“You three! Better not mess up this time! The Shogun Family gave this place one last chance and I don’t want to see this restaurant get closed down because of you meddling troublemakers! Do I make that clear?!”

“Nick? **World to Nicholas**!” Erek raised his voice a bit, finally catching the man’s attention. “Whew, got your attention. You zoned out a lot! We reached my place already! Don’t you wanna come inside?” Erek asked before unloading his stuff from the cart. “Man, Suzuki pack a lot of books in this luggage! Do I have time for all of this? I haven’t finished that book for a long time.”

“ ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’… do you know what will happen to Dumbledore?” Nick smirked as he sort out between gears and daily outfits. It is terrible on knowing how much some of those ugly clothes cost. What were those idiotic designers thinking when they make this? Why does Kevin think this is the peak of fashion? He glanced at his distracted master before slipping all the ugly clothes into a disposal bag. 

“I don’t know, Nick… Is it good?” he finalised his thought before turning to his friend, startling him as Nick quickly closed the bag tightly. Luckily, the boy isn’t aware what’s going on. Nick took a relief breath before answering, “It depends, kid. I need to get out and take out the trash, if you may excuse me.”

“Okay, Nick. Can you throw this as well, please? It’s a piece of receipt that I forgot to throw it and I kinda use this as a bookmark.”

“Sure thing, kid. You have a proper bookmark, right?”

“I think so… I just don’t know where I put it…”

“Okay, Mr I-have-more-than-ten-bookmarks-but-I-don’t-know-”

“Nick…”

“Geez, make it twenty then.”

“THAT’S NOT THE POINT!”

Nick laughed after he quickly ran out of the door, leaving a shouting boy behind as he locked the door. He adjusted his yukata before rushing to the elevator. The door is almost closing but Nick is faster to reach it. When he enter, he met someone he thought he never going to meet again.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, Tres! Over here! See if you can catch me!” Skul yelled as he inked up a path down the conveyor belt on his left side of his base. The girl seems to took the bait and chase him, not realising that his teammates were on the other side of the map covering turf after they splatted her teammate. It’s like a game of catch between the two of them. Skul is lucky that he have Swim Speed Up stacked fully in his gears, with Ninja Squid to caught her off guard. He was mentally celebrating for his survival when he suddenly got splatted by the Stealth boy, who seem to have respawn. Before the girl realised what’s going on, she heard cans opening.

“SPECIAL WEAPONS! INKZOOKA/KILLER WAIL/INKSTRIKE!” Three members of Team B-Rush shouted in unison as they targeted at both members of the purple team and blast off their special weapons. This is Choco’s plan, and it seems that there’s no way those two would get away from the chaotic special deliveries. 

“Did you all get them, especially her?” the leader spoke through the Speaker Screen. He always have high hopes for his team but not much hope for their plan execution. The plans in his teams are always easier said than done. So, he couldn’t believe how much effort his team is putting for a beginner rather than highly profreshional players.

“Yep, I think so! There’s no way they could make it out alive, Skul. I have that Stealth boy in my Splat ScreeAAAAAH!” Choco screamed suddenly. Another shout and bomb could be seen exploding at the enemies’ base. Before Skul could even react further, Fishy swore bad censored words before shouting, “YOU HAVE THAT BUBBLER READY FROM THE START?! OH COME O-GAH!”

Sound of splatting have been heard from the speaker and Skul was too shocked to speak. And then, realisation hit him. Did he saw her activate her special weapon, even once, in the match? Tres has never been splatted in this entire match, which means that she already inked up her special gauge and find the right timing to use the Bubbler. “That inkling is no beginner… She must been planned everything out from the start… What kind of squid is that girl?!” He plopped down to the floor as the match ends.

Tres looked at them disappointedly before retreating in front to Judd Result Stage.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh my…” a light grey inkling, which had her tentacles tied in a large bow on the right side of her head and wears a black corset dress with three lime green stripes in the front, chuckled lightly in her living room as she watch Team B-Rush stared at Judd in disbelief through her SquidPad. 86.3% to 11.8%, that must be the highest record for some team with two disconnections. “What a powerhouse girl…” she curiously thought, “… no wonder she was named Monster Rookie.”

Another inkling, which had her black tentacles tied in a large bow on the back of her head while leaving the ends to dangle and wears a similar corset dress with pink stripes, came rushing through the main door with plastic bags, shouting, “Marie, you have no idea what happen! Do you know those popular Splatube sensations play against that overpower solo player? Team B-Rush? Monster Rookie? I run back home as fast as I can to tell you that-”

“They lose, Callie? I know, that’s the SquidPad for you,” Marie looked up to her pouting cousin as she turned off her devices calmly, “Tres Perdere won with 30 splats. And she got away from the special chaos with a Bubbler.” Callie quickly settled down her bags and plopped down to the sofa with Marie. “Oh my zapfish! She’s so cool! To think she just debut that start with a BANG like that!”

“I know, Cal. I wonder if we could battle against her… or even recruit her as Agent 3 for Squidbeak Splatoon.” the light grey inkling wondered, “On the second thought, maybe those squiddos are exaggerating when they post things like ‘She’s worse than the devil squid itself!’ or ‘Can’t get out unless you want to suffer’.”

“But, Marie~! She’s like a Holy Zapfish level type of squid! Tres beat up Crystal who was like, the undefeated champion of the Hill of Rollers! I co-host that League for two seasons and Crystal was like ZAM and KERSPLAT to all those opponents! And there’s Tres splatted her like she was nothing!”

“Please, Cal, remember a Dynamo Roller users can’t put their roller fast enough to dodge a Shooter type weapon.”

“Marie, Crystal use her Damage Up gear for that match which make her Dynamo Roller weights like, nothing at all!”

“Well, I prefer not to get that immersed in League players as much as you, Cal. Don’t look at me like that. In the meantime, why don’t we rehearsed for our host debuts for Inkopolis News? Jems sent their regards and congrats gift for being chosen as their successor.”

“Really?! How sweet of them! Is it candies? Or chocolates?”

Callie squealed in delight as she go through the gifts. Her cousin just shook her head lightly before joining her.

~~~~~~~~~~

Team B-Rush was embarrassed as they walked out the lobby to wait for the next announcement. Fans are already started to crowding to comfort them, especially Choco who was starting to tear up, “We had one job, guys! One job! And we screw it up! Badly!”

“I know, Choco, I know! Carp, that was the most horrible match we ever play against unstable connection team!” Skul cried as he threw his .52 Gal Deco to the floor and apologised whoever he accidentally hit. GG was frustrated like Skul is but he kept in his emotions as to not ruin his team’s already damaged reputation. He simply shrugged it off, “Well, we will get her next time, mon ami! C’est la vie!”

“Is this your human language again, GG? It better not be a swear word like that last recording we had or Skul is gonna kill you for tainting his audience,” Fishy warned before accepting donations from his fans through his Patreon Screen. The team were lucky that their fans are still so supportive. Maybe they should film something to honour their supports.

Just then, the crowd literally saw a flying squid, screaming in terror, from the Deca Tower. As the squid slowly turned to humanoid form, they all recognised him as the Stealth boy from the Monster Rookie’s team. Speaking of the orange devil squid, she appears after him with imaginary dark flames surrounding her, wielding plain expression with the eyes of a merlion. The boy tried to crawl away but he got kicked by her, multiple times on the ‘junior’. Skul quickly pulled her off before the orange could do even more holy damage.

“What in the name of The Holy Zapfish did that boy do to deserve this, Perdere?!” he questioned angrily while glances at the poor boy. The aggressive inkling seems to calm down for a while, before glaring at her previous teammate, “He-”

“I’M SORRY THAT I HOGGED ALL THE VICTORY CASH, TRES! I’M SORRY! I WON’T DO IT AGAIN!” the Stealth boy scrambled to his knees as he clumsily scanned the victory cash out of his Cash Screen into hers. “LOOK, TAKE ALL OF THIS. DON’T COME FOR ME!” he run away before the Rookie could stop him. She sighed with a hint of stress, “That’s what happen. Stop grabbing me, wannabe.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The apartment ended up looking great, as Erek said so himself. He managed to do this without Nick too! Speaking of the devil fish, Nick came back with a dreamy gaze. Even though his face is ripe red like he got slapped on the face. The man then composed himself and chimed, “What ever it looks like, don’t question it. Okay?”

The inkling boy nodded as he quickly ran to his bedroom. He is going to assume that Nick have a crush. He never thought his friend is capable on doing that expression. The all-so-in-love expression. But that doesn’t explain about that face that looks like he got slapped.

“Kid?” the man opened the door and peeked his head out, “Dinner or shower?”

“Dinner, please! Can I prepare dinner myself?” Erek grinned as he walked out of the door and headed to the kitchen. He opened up the last suitcase that contains packaged food that Blan prepared. There are lots of varieties that Erek had hard time in choosing. Should he pick that fried sea chicken rice? Or that tasty looking Kimchi? The roasted sea beef looks delicious too. 

“You know, kid? You could just pick a few that you don’t know how to cook, right? Blan probably taught you most of their recipes.” Nick glided over to his young master and looked at the food. The boy immediately grabbed some of the food boxes and set them out to the table. The man chuckled before grabbing some utensils to the table.

After they ate their dinner, it’s time for Nick to go back home. Erek can’t believe how the day end so quickly, and he’s going to have his first Turf War debut tomorrow too! He can’t wait to make new friends! It’s finally his chance to live independently!

“Erek,” Nick took some empty luggages as he went to the front door, “Be safe. Make us all proud on how much you have grown.” He smiled before shutting the door. Erek smiled widely before locking the door. “It’s gonna be fine, what else could go wrong?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note : All of this is ENTIRELY NON-CANON. I’m still working on my writing skills. Thank You and Enjoy, hopefully.

It was late at the dark, gloomy night. Most residents are deep into their dream wonderland. Some are doing their shady businesses. Unfortunately for the hidden residents of Inkopolis, there were no rest for them.

Multiple alarms blasted out in the massive fortress located deep in the forest of Mount Nantai. Most of the people emerged from their slumber quickly and get dressed before waking up those who are a deep sleeper. After they geared up, they immediately rushed to the nearest kettle in order.

Nicholas, who had just walked through the gate door of the main entrance, heard the alarm and, with a little bit of hesitation, dropped everything he was holding as he rush straight to the emergency kettle at the corner of the front garden wall, where it was hidden by flower bushes. He changed into his other form and swam right into it.

As soon as he emerged from another kettle, the place around him reveals to be an underground base. Full with equipments, gadgets, computers and weapons. He rarely went here ever since he became a co-guardian for his young master but he knew, for a fact, that this place is now chaotic. 

Half of the night-shift people are typing away in their computers and tried to keep track on their task or rushing around, while another half of them seems to be missing, but it soon replaced by bunch of day-shift people fully suited up and lined up right in front of an old but fitted lady, who aged pretty well for a 130-years-old.

“ **Nicholas, just in time.** ” the old lady said in a firm authority, “ **Before we address the situation here, how’s my grandson?** ”

Fond murmurs were heard among the people before got silenced by the glare from the old lady. Nicholas sighed in bliss, “ **He’s fine, Mistress! He is still the pure boy who worried over small things.** ”

She nodded in acknowledgement, smiling a bit, before broadcast a image onto the huge projector screen in front of them. A crashed unidentified flying object. Half of the crowd gasped. “ **Isn’t that a failed prototype of Thunderstrike? Why is it here?!** ” Suzuki, another co-guardian of Erek, speaking her mind out in fear. 

“ **Minale, come here and report on what the Scout Squad D had discovered, please.** ” the old lady said with simple directness. A three feet being, equipped with a large propeller helmet, zoomed right behind the crowd. “ **As you can see from the picture,** ” she started her report while landed on the table with grace, “ **a failed prototype military aircraft, Thunderstrike, crashed outside the city, with a corpse of a Mini Zapfish that was used to operated the aircraft. Bless its soul.** ”

“ **The Scout Squad D previously assumed that it was just a public test run from the underground Oct-** ”

“ **Wait,** ” Nick rudely interrupted Minale’s report, “ **what do you mean by ‘previously’?** ”

“ **It is where I’m trying to get to the point, Mr Nicholas!** ” she scoffed, “ **If I _may_ continue, they thought it was just a test run until a power outage happen. It only last for approximately five minutes before the power came back.**”

“ **Ten minutes before we activate the emergency alarms...** ” Minale continued along with a stressful sigh, broadcast the picture of Inkopolis Tower, “ **...the Great Zapfish is gone.** ”

This statement alerted the uneasy crowd as they scanned the picture. Indeed, the Great Zapfish is missing from its tower. The Mistress clapped lightly to gain their attention back to her. She nodded to the Scout captain who zoomed back to her post, giving out commands as she spoke to the microphone that wirelessly connected to the Scout Squad D.

“ **So far, the conclusion of the report is that Thunderstrike is merely a distraction tool in order to steal the Great Zapfish. Even though we all know that we got more than enough Zapfishes to supply our power source and they have other resources to generate power,** ” the old lady halted her talk for a few seconds, “ **why would they want the Great Zapfish for? Any possible answer? Or someone knows exactly why _he_ would need it?**”

The absolute silence is eerie until Suzuki shakily raised her hands. The old lady arched her eyebrows before nodding to let her answer. “ **Twenty years ago, I... I participated the project before I escaped, Mistress Octivia. He’s building some... sort of heavy spherical aircraft with some built-in turntables and mixers... along with some Wasabi supplies...** ” she gulped, “ **...the module were estimated to use large amount of energy... but Alivia and Alivia Jr helped me sabotaged the process before aiding me to escape that hell hole!** ”

“ **Calm down, dearest.** ” a tall figure, wearing a set of laser sight goggles, patted her shoulders sympathetically as she cried uncontrollably.

“ **Go calm your wife, Hayato. I fill in the rest of the details to you two later.** ” The lady in charge pardoned them as they walked back to the kettle. “ **Unfortunately, even with their best efforts in sabotaging, the heavy aircraft was built. If he manage to tame the Great Zapfish to do his bidding, Inkopolis is doom to be destroyed.** ”

“ **And as Octarians ourselves, we know how Octavio operated behind his DJ set. If we let that happen, we would be back to the starting point! Are you ready to oppose against the hypnotisation once more, my fellow friends?!** ” she shouted in a fierce tone.

“ **YES, MISTRESS!** ”

~~~~~~~~~~

Erek woke up early in the morning, the sky was bright and the sunlight shone through the windows. Lazily, he stretch his body as he get up from his bed and walked out from his bedroom. The birds were chirping and enjoying the cool breeze when he opened up the slide door that leads to the balcony. The dew drops were falling from the leaves of various flowers he potted yesterday. The sun was rising up from the clouds as he water his flowers.

Just as he walked back to his bedroom to take some clothes for his fresh debut, there came a huge knocking and loud ringing on the main door. 

“Must be the neighbours... Cod, I forgot about introducing myself to them yesterday!” the boy mentally slapped himself, “Coming!”

He rushed to the door, not before he tied his tentacles to Topknot, and opened it to see three inklings standing there. One of them, the cyan ‘inkling’ girl, looks familiar but he couldn’t pinpoint on where he seen her before. The middle one of the group, a pink inkling girl, decided to talked.

“Hello there, rookie! The name’s Callie Mac N! Callie for short. On my left is one of my Roller buddies, Mike!”

Mike, an orange inkling boy, raise his Octoglasses and rest it in his forehead, “Hello~!”

“On my right is our little floof of our humble crew, Jewel!”

The cyan girl smiled brightly, “Hewwo, I’m Jewel. Your neighbour at the corner over there! My mommy told me about your arrival yesterday. What’s your name?”

The three of them stared at him with excitement. Nervously, he scratched his head before replying, “Oh... uh... My name is Erek! Nice to meet you all! Want to come in? I’m about to change my clothes and start cooking breakfast.”

“Oh, great! Thanks, buddy. Don’t mind us crash-... WOAH!” As soon as they were welcomed into Erek’s home, they were met with the most freshest living room they ever seen. A bookcase full of the latest video games, a clearly expensive LED TV along with its loudspeakers, limited edition of Chirpy Chips poster with the members’ signature and, is that a freaking CoroCoro hoodie hanging on a coat rack that was supposed to be out in like, next year?

“Umm, guys? You have been standing here for a long time. I made some light breakfast so we could... uh... chat?” Erek, now donning the Starting Gears, was quite concerned about his new friends, who gawked at his living room quite a long time. “Is it weird? My living room?”

The trio snapped out of their daze. “What, no!” Callie exclaimed, “It’s just... woah! My daily earnings couldn’t even pay for this kind of luxuries! Let alone that hoodie! How did you managed to get that?! It was supposed to come out next year!”

“Next year? But I got it for my birthday three days ago. My friend, Kevin, who gave me that just said they have extras so... yeah!” Erek recalled a little. 

“Dude, you don’t actually mean Kevin, the famous trendsetter who just opened a company called Cuttlegear? That guy knows his stuff about fashion!” Mike gushed, “This Octoglasses? Automatically became my favourite headgear after he post some cool model pictures with them. And you know him?!”

“Yes? He works for my Grandmama and he take care of my wardrobe since I was young.”

“Wow! That is crazily fresh! Can I check your closet?”

“Mike, that is rud-”

“Sure, go straight and turn left, you should be able to reach my gear wardrobe.”

Mike cheered as he rushed to the location. Jewel facepalmed, “I’m sorry about my boyfriend.”

“It’s fine. I could give some gears away if he loved it so much. I was planning to buy my own clothes with empty slots anyway.”

“Wait, wha-”

“OH MY GOD! CALLIE! JEWEL! LOOK AT THIS! EREK HAVE SUPER FRESH CLOTHES! EVEN THE SLOTS ARE GOD TIER! I’M IN HEAVEN!”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Gramps, come on... pick up the cells already...” Marie is pacing around the studio. After her cell ended with the monotone message and a beep, she heavily huffed before looked helplessly at her cheerful cousin, which now have a frown on her face as she fiddling with her thumbs. “Nothing?”

“Nothing.” she plopped down to a sofa as Callie sat down nervously beside her. 

“It can’t be... he usually would answer us in a few rings. And now this happens!”

“It’s going to be alright, Cal. Once we finished our broadcast, we head straight down to Octo Valley to check up on him. He’s the strongest squid we have ever known.”

“I know, Marie. But, it’s Gramps we are talking about. Possibilities are limitless! What if his SquidCell is broken? What if he was kidnapped? What if-”

“Callie, calm down!” her cousin smacked her head slightly before caressing it gently. Callie pouted before surveying around the studio. The production team is a hectic mess. Bumping against each other frantically, papers are flying everywhere, the cameras are being thrown left and right.

“Squid Sisters? Five more minutes before we start the Inkopolis News!” a female show betta glided gracefully in front of the two cousins, pointing at her blue watch impatiently.

“Ms Betty!” the Squid Sisters immediately stand up and bow to her. “Sorry, me and Marie were-”

“I know,” Ms Betty halted the black inkling, “I’m not blaming you girls. This is probably the first time we have to broadcast this kind of news. If it weren’t for that Great Zapfish to go missing on us...”

“We understand, Ms Betty. We truly do.” Marie grimaced a bit before following behind their director. Once they arrived at the Inkopolis News Studio, they immediately went into position, just like they had been practised for the last few weeks.

“Don’t be nervous and follow the script. Add some colours into it like you are not reading whatever was written here, okay? That was what made this program famous for.” Ms Betty addressed, “We are ready in three, two...”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Man, you are a really good cook!” Callie complimented Erek as they finally arrived at the Plaza. Jewel nodded shyly, agreeing what she had said while Mike is burping loudly, “Yeah, you should totally teach me that recipe! I could cook for my babs and mother-in-law too!”

“Mike!” Jewel slapped his back softly. They laughed loudly at the interaction. Probably loud enough to cause four certain inklings to turn their heads to them. 

“Oh, you guys! Where have you been?!” a dark blue inkling boy with glasses asked. Callie shrugged it off when her new friend have a questioning look, “Those guys are the rest of my crew. From left to right, we got the ever so quiet Kitty,” she gestured excitedly to a lime green inkling girl who just waved before turning her focus back to her SquidPhone.

“Marcus, the ‘cool guy’ wannabe,” a purple inkling boy just flicked her some fingers before finishing his drink.

“Blitz, my roommate and another Roller Buddies,” the boy with the glasses offered to shake hands. Erek accepted it and shake politely.

“And Marlee! Our new member from last week!” a dark green inkling girl grinned at them.

Once introductions are done, Blitz pondered a bit, “I’m going to assumed you haven't watch the news, yes?”

“No. Why?” Mike asked back, “Are the news reporter some blacklisted musicians?”

“No,”

“Racist?” Jewel cautioned.

“No,”

“Famous enough to actually expect them to report Inkopolis News?” Callie guessed before squinting at the big window where the reporters would be sitting.  
  
“Well, yes! But it’s not the point right now! The content-”

“HOLY ZAPFISH, IS THAT THE SQUID SISTER?! I’M A BIG FAN! HEY CALLIE, WE HAVE THE SAME NAME!” Callie Mac shouted enthusiastically as she run up the walkway and squeezed her way through the crowd outside.

“Why do we elect her as the captain?” Marcus scoffed at her behaviour. “So crazy, that woman...”

“I’m a big fan as well... but not as hyper as Callie is.” Erek giggled. The crew laughed it off for a while. 

“So, back to the topic, what do we miss?” Mike questioned with a curious tone.

“You see, well,” Blitz looked at his clueless teammates, and a new friend, with a sense of guilt, “I don’t think we could participate this month Splatfest.”

The trio gasped. They were shocked, especially Erek. His first day of debut had clashed with a horrific news. The kind of news he didn’t expect to happen in the first place.

“Are you serious, mate?” Mike fretted, “We never ever have a Splatfest cancelled before! All they need is to postpone, like they did in that Pencil vs Pen Splatfest!”

“News Flash, brother.” the purple inkling roughly tilted his friend’s head up, the rest of them followed suit, “Our humble energy source had disappeared!”

~~~~~~~~~~

“Staaaay fresh!” was all she last heard before turning off the radio. Furrowing her eyebrows, Tres quietly packed her Splattershot Jr. Before she could even tiptoed towards the old, rotten door, she was hugged from the back. Usually, she would roundhouse that person who dared to risk their life to hug her but there are few exceptions, especially this little yellow figure behind her is her baby sister.

“Paula...” she turned around before kneeling down to hug her back, making the little inkling giggled silently. Tres smiled softly, “Go back to big brother, would you? Breakfast’s ready.”

“Annnd you are going to stay this time, Big Sis.” another yellow figure, slightly smaller than Tres, spoke sternly while pointing a pan to threaten her. Tres smirked a bit before running to the door. She was succeeding before her face got stuck. A freaking clear tape prank. 

“Cielo... Zona...” she pulled the tape immediately before screaming in pain, “Again?”

“It’s ya fault that ya makin this easy for us, Big Sis.” two small orange figures appeared outside the door. They laughed heartily at her before shrieked as their eldest sister hugged them off the ground. It’s not long before the rest of the siblings decided to join their group hug.

They settled down after they finally convinced their eldest sibling to stay back and properly eat her breakfast. Although it’s been a while since they have breakfast together, Tres still wolfed down her share of food. Diego couldn’t stand this any longer as he hit her softly but still painful enough with the very same pan.

“Eat it slowly, Big Sis. It’s not like the Inkopolis Tower is going to run anywhere.”

“I know but the faster I earn some cash, the sooner we can get the surgery to be done.”

“Big Sis...” the small twin-tailed inkling mumbled before she quickly snatched back her small bits of bread from her twin brother. The eldest grinned at this sight before excusing herself from the table. She pecked each one of them before heading out.

“Be careful not to overwork yourself, Big Sis!” Diego shouted. Tres halted her movement before glancing back at the eldest brother of the house. “I can’t promise that.”

She sighed before whispering, “Not when our dad have his life on the line.”


End file.
